Healthcare solutions
Fun rehabilitation solutions for your (health) care center!
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In a beautifully wooded area lies the healthcare park of ‘s Heeren Loo Ermelo. People with mental disabilities live and work here. The healthcare park in Ermelo is for the young, old, and people with or without disabilities. The project started in 2018; the park needed to stimulate active exercise uniquely and playfully, so they decided to install the Yalp Sona Interactive dance and play arch. Due to the success of moving playfully with the Sona, a fit & fun path with exercise equipment was realized. Also, The Yalp Sutu Interactive ball wall has been installed at the park. This way, there is enough reason for all ages and levels to move outside.
Active outdoor movement in Ermelo
Since the Sona’s placing in 2018, a start has been made with active outdoor movement in a unique, playful way. The first interactive playground equipment was installed. The project manager at ‘s Heerenloo Freek Hoogezand states: “Sona playfully provides outdoor exercise. The Sona has fueled our enthusiasm to put outdoor movement on the map in a fun way. We came up with the idea of creating a Fit & Fun path with different exercise equipment, making it a real path with devices of different levels that can offer all our target groups fit & fun. On the path, you will come across devices that deliver different exercises. Both focused on activity and cooperation. Being active together is more fun than alone”.
Furthermore, the inhabitants of the municipality of Ermelo show interest in the equipment in the park. Freek: “Adults and children know by word of mouth how to find the interactive playsets in the park. For example, the sporty people use the Fit & Fun path to support their training”.
The importance of exercise for people with disabilities
The Sona plays music and gives movement commands. At the top of the arch is a camera that registers precisely what the people on the floor are doing. Freek: “We notice that the arch encourages people to move. For people with a mental disability, sufficient exercise is not always a given. Because of additional (serious) physical limitations, but also because of safety aspects or limited time, supervisors might have to undertake targeted movement activities. When counselors are more aware of the importance of movement, the degree of clients’ movement also increases considerably. Outdoor exercise on interactive playground equipment benefits the health of people with intellectual disabilities. It also positively affects body awareness, spatial awareness, and social contacts”.
Supervisors can motivate and encourage clients and their relatives to move outdoors.
Besides the Sona, the park is also equipped with a Yalp Sutu Interactive ball wall.
Zorgpark ‘s Heeren Loo is very enthusiastic about interactive play and therefore chose this year to place a Sutu at the Child & Youth center. Freek: “We’ve had the Sona for a while, and it immediately caught the eye, not only by residents of the park but also by residents of Ermelo and the surrounding area. And the Sutu is literally and figuratively a hit!
More fun and color in the park
“The cooperation with Yalp was fantastic, both in thinking along and advising, as well as the cooperation with other companies that participated in the development and creation of the Fit & Fun path. In addition to the pleasant cooperation, The Yalp Interactive play equipment provides more fun and color in the park. We owe this to Yalp!”
